Tricks That Once Fooled Me
Now I think I understand,
how this world can overcome a man.
Like a friend we saw through,
in the end I gave my life for you.
Not that I could, or that I would,
Let it burn, under my skin, let it burn!
Avenged Sevenfold – Fiction
After the pleasant lunch spent in the company of her friends, Ariana made her way to Potions. The subject of how she enjoyed such a lesson often cropped up amongst them, to which the answer was simple. She didn't. Well, not really. Compared to lessons like History of Magic and Herbology, yes she enjoyed the creativity of it all and it was admittedly, a lot more interesting. She did however hate the fact that most of the people in her class were Slytherins, aside from Lily of course, but that was just as bad seeing as they weren't on speaking terms. She also hated Professor Slughorn and his irritating ways of picking out interesting people as his favourites in the class and then inviting them to those damn parties all the time.
That lesson they were making the Draught of Living Death, an extremely powerful sleeping draught. Taking out her pestle and mortar, which she had purchased at the apothecary in Diagon Alley in her first year, she placed a chunk of asphodel root in it and began to grind it to a powder. It was surprisingly calming, she thought, as she pounded away at the mixture, releasing all of her anger at recent events. As she checked her cauldron was still simmering, she thought about whether she should avoid going to the library that evening. It wasn't as if they could hunt her down, the castle was big enough to hide in!
Immersed in her thoughts, she didn't notice Lily watching her from across the room. Nor did she see Lucius Malfoy glaring at her from the back of the room. Adding the powdered asphodel to the infusion of wormwood in the cauldron, she let the mixture simmer for ten minutes, occasionally stirring clockwise like the instructions in her textbook said to do. Barely a minute before the bell went, she managed to put the stopper in the crystal vial of a sample and handed it in to Professor Slughorn. Noone else had finished by then, so clearing up and leaving the dungeons quickly, she vowed to make her way to dinner and save the regular seats for the boys, if only to stop James complaining about other people stealing them.
Soon after, they joined her at the table, silently seating themselves opposite her in a row, where practically the only seats were available. Looking up from her bag, where she was checking to make sure that the crunch she had heard whilst sitting down was not in fact the demise of one of her vials, she caught a glimpse of Lily's red hair weaving through the crowd to reach the Gryffindor table. Glancing about her, she realised that the only free seats were either side of her. Looking agonizingly at the boys, her worry quickly dissipated when Sirius and Remus quickly ducked under the table to fill those seats, leaving James to beam with joy when the vacant seats next to him, were filled by Lily and a friend.
James attempted to strike up a conversation with Lily, but was immediately rejected much to the amusement of Sirius. Scowling at them both, she deliberately turned away and spoke inaudibly to her friend, who giggled nastily and agreed with whatever she had said. Ariana did not pay much attention to the Headmaster's speech and merely stared glumly at the table, taking occasional sips of pumpkin juice from her goblet. After dinner was served, she silently picked up the serving spoon of the nearest bowls and dumped them unceremoniously on her plate. Choosing cauliflower cheese, spinach and roast potatoes, she was in the middle of choosing what meat she wanted, from a choice of roast chicken, roast pork and crackling or lamb chops, when she realised she wasn't all that hungry any more. Eating all that she could, she kept herself to herself for the rest of the meal, half-heartedly listening to the conversations of her friends.
The silence after the meal was rather disconcerting, so Ariana stood up and made her way to the library to wait for the others, who were still eating dessert. Sitting down on a comfy sofa by one of the massive fireplaces, she relaxed as she felt the warmth seep through her body. Settling down amongst the cushions she closed her eyes, just for a moment, to block out the brightness of the flames. Nearly an hour later, she woke up, as a result of someone repeatedly poking her. Mumbling in complaint, she swatted their hand away and rolled over. They persisted until she sat upright, bleary eyed and groggy. Sat in nearby armchairs were James and Remus, Sirius had joined her on the sofa; it appeared, he was the one trying to wake her up.
"Oh. Hey guys..." She mumbled, rubbing at her eyes in an attempt to wake herself up. "What time is it please?" Remus looked at his watch, sending a golden spark across the room as the light from the fire glinted off the shiny face. "Just gone nine o'clock"
Sirius leant back against the sofa; letting his long legs stretch out towards the fire said, "Well, we'd better hurry this up then, we wouldn't want to be caught out of bed after hours." Looking at Ariana, he winked cheekily, earning a weak smile from her. "Go on then," he gestured to her to begin. Clearing her throat, she began her story, explaining to Sirius and James that her mother frowned upon the friends she had made at school and banned her from speaking to them. She told them how Lily had scorned her apology and run off to Snivellus, speaking the name with disdain. "So I decided to walk to school, I needed to think and I wanted to be alone. I'm really sorry for making you angry…" She said, trying desperately not to let the tears fogging up her vision to fall. An arm wrapped itself around her shoulders and pulled her in close, enveloping her in a hug. The others joined in, silently trying to cheer her up. James wiped her cheeks with his shirt cuff whilst Sirius whispered in her ear, "We just didn't want you to get hurt. We could never be angry at you, we all love you to pieces." Ariana nodded in response and kissed each one of them on the cheek in silent thanks. She was glad she hadn't mentioned Peter to them, though it filled her with guilt for hiding things from them.
Lying in bed that night, he felt his hand drifting up to the spot she had kissed earlier. He smiled at the memory and felt his stomach tremble with butterflies. He shouldn't be lingering on the thought and he felt sure was blushing – she is his best friend after all. Perhaps he should get some air and clear his head…
Ariana entered the common room silently, ignoring the hum of conversation coming from the armchairs surrounding the fire. Stalking past Lily and the rest of the girls who she shared the dormitory with pretending they didn't exist and made her way to bed, shrugging off questions from the others. As she made her way up the stairs, past the boy's dormitories, a movement at the top caught her eye. Pausing in the shadows, his hand on the door to the sixth year's dormitory was Sirius. Smiling sadly at her, he closed the door softly, leaving her alone once more.